


Magical Things

by TheAwolAngel



Category: Merlin (TV)
Genre: M/M, Multi
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2017-11-27
Updated: 2017-11-27
Packaged: 2019-02-07 12:01:06
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,302
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/12840723
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/TheAwolAngel/pseuds/TheAwolAngel
Summary: The Stranger Things AU no one asked for.In which, Merlin's Eleven. Arthur's Mike. They're kids. It's not the eighties. They've got a monster chasing them and corrupt government officials are generally making their lives hard, you know, the usual.





	Magical Things

Lightning crashed and thunder shook the garage door to their left, though none took notice, too enveloped by their game.

"Hah, you dead, sucker!" Gwaine chimed in, grin fully in place as he shot Arthur in the face and the double L's high-fived, not even taking their eyes off the TV. 

Arthur threw his hands in the air, "I'm on your team, Gwaine. You were supposed to get Leon and Lance."

Gwaine just kept on smirking, "I work alone, Princess."

It was only right to pout.

Well as long as he was dead, he might as well eat.

He stood up with the drunken stagger of someone who'd been sitting on their legs for two hours and settled into a stretch, "I'm gonna grab a slice of pizza from upstairs. You guys want anything?"

"No thanks!"

"I will only feast on victory tonight!"

"I'm good, Princess."

He rolled his eyes and started towards the stair case, "Fine, I'll be right ba-" Thunder struck once again and this time as the lightning receded, it took the power with it. The garage turned hang-out space went dark and Gwaine cried out his grief, "I was about to win." and an accompanying, "No, you weren't. I was."

"Great, just great," Arthur muttered as he started to carefully search the walls. For what, for a flash light of course.

His hands felt across the panels until he met the desk. His fingers poked and prodded through every inch until they landed on the correct item.

He thumbed it on and his friend's faces illuminated from their place on the floor, the three squinting back at him, he sighed, "Guess we're gonna have to cut this short, lads."

The three grumbled their protests and tossed their controllers on the floor, reluctantly getting off their butts.

 

"Race you down the street?" Lancelot chimed in the distance on his bike and Lancelot responded something mumbled in kind, the rain coming down even harder now that they were without the shelter of the garage.

Gwaine bumped him playfully, "Sorry for killing you earlier. I'll try not to do that next time."

Arthur shook his head, blond bangs falling awkwardly into his face, "No thanks, I'll partner with Leon next time." He laughed.

Gwaine settled onto his bike seat and grasped at his bar handles, but didn't take off like Lance and Leon did.

"You okay, Gwaine?"

He seemed to be taken aback, "Uh yeah, I just. I don't want to go home." He ducked his head and the rain water dripped off his head.

Oh.

"They still arguing?" Which got a nod.

Arthur massaged the back of his neck, "I'd offer to let you stay here, but you know my dad doesn't like you."

Gwaine found the energy to chuckle, "Where on Earth he got the idea I was a hoodlum from, I'll never know."

"You got arrested for vandalism and disorderly conduct last month."

"Fair point, but don't worry about it, dude. I'll see you on Monday?" He didn't check back for an answer before setting on his way down the street.

The rain continued on and Arthur eventually returned inside.

 

"Ma, I'm back from Arthur's." Gwaine called but the trailer sat in silence.

A post it note stained with cheap coffee sat the lone survivor on the fridge. He slid it carefully from underneath the cracked magnet holding it in place.

Will be out late. Foods in the fridge. If you have cereal, don't use the milk, it's very expired. Love you.

Working late again, it seemed.

He flicked the light switch just to check, but their electricity was out as well.

Weighed down with an additional twenty pounds of water, Gwaine squished and dripped his way to his bed, leaving wet marks where his feet were along the way with a few traces of mud, just for good measure.

It seemed like he'd sat down for only a second when the doorbell trilled.

He perked up, maybe his mom was back earlier than she intended.

He trotted back to the front door and swung open the door only to meet an empty doorway. He took an anxious foot out the door and peered around, "Arthur?"

No blond popped out to scare him.

"Whatever." He closed the door and went back to his room, but a sound behind him caught his attention.

He scanned through the dark and found not a hair out of place.

Slightly freaked, Gwaine tried to shake it off. That pseudo-calm didn't last long when the lights suddenly flashed on then off then on again, flickering wildly until the light bulb overhead literally burst, the floor being showered with glass.

Then he saw it.

He tried to run for the door, but it was faster.

 

"Missing, what do you mean he's missing?" Arthur raged as his father calmly laid out what the police officers had said.

"He was here the night he went missing." He said, words bland and confused.

Uther sighed and stared longingly at his now cold chicken dinner. He admitted, "I told them he wasn't here."

"Why?"

"It's hard to explain, son." He spread his fingers across his head. "You'll understand when you're older."

Arthur squinted, "What is that supposed to mean?"

Morgana found the perfect time to enter, flouncing down the stairs with a peppiness that was a stranger to her.

"Dad, can I go over to Morgause's house?" She pleaded, eyes watering in the way Arthur could never master.

"No." Like the drop of a hat, her pep was dead.

"Why?"

Uther stared at her like it was obvious, "Because there's a curfew in place, young lady."

She groaned and stomped back upstairs, every step feeling her righteous anger.

Uther and Arthur glanced at each other and shared a single word, "Teenagers."

 

As teenagers do, Morgana bent the rules to her favor.

Slipping into a black hoodie and black jeans, Morgana edged out of her bedroom window, finding her footing upon the roof and down the side of the garage.

"Can't tell me what to do. I'm practically an adult." She grumbled as she shouldered herself through the night until she reached the blonde's house.

Her house was dark and desolate except for the one room lit up like a Christmas tree.

She smiled, her cheeks dimpling. Scooping down, Morgana plucked up a pebble and heaved it at the illuminated window.

The blinds bent and a pair of eyes peaked through for a second before they were abandoned.

The front door opened and Morgause appeared like a vision.

"Come on, we just cracked open the keg."

Morgana stepped in.

 

Arthur was nothing if not determined, and he was determined to find his best friend.

He stared them down hard, like those investigators on TV, all beady eyed and everything, "Are you in or out?"

Lancelot scoffed, "Do you even have to ask."

Leon stood proudly, "Lead on, fearless leader."

So that was that. They would find Gwaine. They'd do it by themselves if those lousy detectives couldn't.

"I say we search the woods by Gwaine's place." He suggested and the two amigos nodded their consent.

 

It was raining again. Heavier than last time. Their skins taking a collective beating from the thousands of droplets invading their personal space.

"Gwaine!" Leon shouted, "Gwaine!"

"Gwaine!" Arthur tried as his flashlight sputtered to its watery death.

"Okay, this isn't working. We need a better plan." Arthur admitted, dropping his flashlight by his side and facing his friends who were too busy looking past him.

"What?"

Lancelot pointed behind him.

"Did you find someth-"

He turned around to see that something and found a someone.

Pale skin, dark hair, and startlingly bare below the waist.

Lance and Leon pinned him down with their light and the boy squinted, eyes wide and body shaking.

**Author's Note:**

> Disclaimer: I don't own these characters or the plot.


End file.
